Unless providence intervenes and the Chargers make the playoffs _ something the Mayans would have to put on their calendar to get us to even discuss something so preposterous _ the franchise is going to be looking for a new head coach come January.

But what of the general manager? That question’s a bit more difficult to answer. Club President Dean Spanos likes stability. Canning both men may be too much for the franchise to successfully support.

It should be noted this is not all coach Norv Turner’s fault. Hardly, although the angry villagers (how many of them are they, exactly?) certainly are carrying a torch for his ouster and next season will have another coach to despise.

Is Norv really a bad coach? A few weeks back ESPN’s Ron Jaworski was discussing the Atlanta Falcon’s winning streak and noted how so many people outside of football don’t realize how difficult it is to win eight-straight NFL games. I always go back to 2009, when the Chargers won 11 straight under Norv.

I just don’t believe a bad coach can win 11-straight NFL games. He had to do something right and he did _ with better players than he has now. But it doesn’t matter. Unless he gets a visit from St. Nicholas, he won’t be back.

Now General Manager A.J. Smith, who built the team out of the muck but has supervised its recent slide, also finds his neck on the stump. These are, after all, his players who are 4-7, every last one of them. But a whole lot of people around here should be careful what they wish for.

If I were forced to guess, I’d say Spanos will make it a package firing and shove both Norv and A.J. into a U-Haul. It’s Dean’s team, his dime. He can do whatever he pleases and he’s done a great job of not really giving a damn what the fans think about his coach and GM.

Although I’d like to defend Norv, and I could, it really wouldn’t do much good now. He’s gone. But Smith is another matter and Spanos will have to think long and hard about ripping things up and starting from scratch. The process won’t be short _ Dean also could make a mistake with his hire _ and it could set the franchise back years.

Before Spanos could even think of a coach, he’d have to hire a GM. GM’s prefer to hire their own coaches. It’s a comfort-level thing. So that’s going to take time and many top coaching prospects could be gone by then.

Plus, Smith and his football people have been scouting colleges and potential free agents for months now. Maybe not all the personnel folks would be let go, but there’s no certainty the players they’ve been scouting will fit in with the plans of a new GM and coach.

A.J. has ticked off a lot of people by letting go good players, but some of those situations couldn’t be helped. As an example, could he afford to pay Michael Turner $30 million when he’d already made LaDainian Tomlinson the highest paid back in The League?

Two years ago A.J. screwed up and didn’t have the right people to play special teams, and it resulted in a fiasco that cost the team the playoffs. He corrected that. After bad defensive play last year, Smith set out to make that side of the ball better. And, while not great, it has become plenty good enough to win. There is some young talent on that side of the ball.

Now the offense has gone south. After receiver Vincent Jackson defected to Tampa Bay, Smith brought in Eddie Royal and Robert Meachem. Royal basically has been hurt since day one and Meachem has been a bust, sent to the bench after A.J. acquired talented Danario Alexander.

Would Jackson have made that big a difference? Maybe. But with this offensive line, one has to wonder, because quarterback Philip Rivers rarely has time to throw the long ball. There are many occasions when there is no pocket at all.

Smith, who due to injury lost left tackle Marcus McNeill and guard Kris Dielman, both Pro Bowlers, for good, thought he had addressed some of it when he brought back mammoth left tackle Jared Gaither, who was by far the most attractive free agent lineman during the offseason. Gaither, now on IR, has had a nightmare season of muscle problems and the line has suffered greatly. But Smith did what he should have done. Nobody complained when he re-signed Gaither.

Smith has faults and has made mistakes. But he’s very comfortable in his own skin, knows every nook and cranny of this organization, and as we’ve seen from his past few drafts, still can find talent.